Lenny Megliola: One win away

Lenny Megliola/Daily News columnist

Sunday

Oct 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2007 at 5:42 PM

After all that waiting for what it might feel like for the Red Sox to win a World Series, they are steadfastly on the doorstep of a second one in four years after last night's 10-5 conquest of the flummoxed Colorado Rockies.

DENVER - It could be tonight.

After all that waiting for what it might feel like for the Red Sox to win a World Series, they are steadfastly on the doorstep of a second one in four years after last night's 10-5 conquest of the flummoxed Colorado Rockies.

With the Red Sox blessed with a 2-0 lead in the series and a 6-0 lead after five innings at Coors Field last night, the Duck Boats were being greased for the big parade.

Then the script got twisted a bit, first innocently enough, when the Rockies scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning. But Daisuke Matsuzaka was still in charge. Pitch count (and stamina) have been a problem though. After 101 pitches, he was gassed. And gone.

His bullpen did him no favors. The worst offender was countryman Hideki Ojakima who gave up a three-run homer, a 437-foot bomb, to Matt Holliday, and the jets had cooled in the Boston dugout. It was 6-5 going into the eighth inning.

Could the Red Sox hold on?

Sure, just leave it to the children. Jacoby Ellsbury's third double of the game (and fourth hit) put another run on the board, Dustin Pedroia doubled in two more and suddenly it was 9-5. That sucked the thin air out of the crowd of 49,983.

Jonathan Papelbon, just a second-year guy, took care of the last four outs and the Red Sox can save the Boston Police Department a lot of trouble by closing it out some 2,000 miles from the streets of the Hub.

How can you lose when you've got stuff going like the Red Sox had in the third inning? It was an inning for the rookies. Ellsbury had two doubles in the six-run inning that began with no score. This kid's something else. He hits it hard, he hits it soft. Doesn't matter. His wheels turn them into base hits.

But, where did this come from, Dice-K getting his first big-league hit that drove in the fourth and fifth runs of the inning. It was a no-brainer that starter Josh Fogg would intentionally walk Julio Lugo and load the bases to get to Matsuzaka, who'd struck out meekly his first time up. But that's pretty much how things are going for the Rockies. Boston had seven hits in the inning.

In Game 4 tonight, the pitchers will be Jon Lester and Aaron Cook, each with a non-baseball story to tell. Lester had his cancer scare. Cook beat down life-threatening blood clots.

"It's kind of ironic," said Cook, "both of us working our way back to the top level of professional baseball. It's tough enough to get here. And what we've been through, just to keep our focus, our faith. I'm sure he realizes without me talking to him that baseball is not the most important thing.

"Once you realize that, you're able to relax ... and just have fun."

That said, there's a monumental game these guys have to pitch tonight. Boston manager Terry Francona has seen up close what Lester has gone through the last year. He admires the kid. Who wouldn't? "I thought he was a very grounded young man before this all happened. He's handled it with a lot of grace, a lot of dignity," said Francona. "But I think he has a very good understanding when he gets on the mound what this game is about."

Let me guess. Winning the World Series?

"I'm pretty excited," said Lester. "It really hasn't hit home yet, but I'm sure (today) when I wake up and realize I'm pitching, I'll start thinking about it and getting nervous."

It was never a case of "Why me?" with Lester. Here he was, in the prime of his life, playing a game that could make him independently wealthy the rest of his life. And then he gets the C word thrown in his face. He spit back at it.

"I'm a competitor. I don't want to be down with anything. Don't feel sorry for yourself; don't sit home and think about it.

"I had a pretty normal off-season. I went hunting and fishing."

Tonight, he's hunting for bigger game.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle will tell you it's like that with Cook too.

"He's already had a life-changing event," Hurdle said. "His perspective on life and sport has been drastically altered where not only his sport was going to be taken but also his life."

Lester vs. Cook.

"It drips with irony," said Hurdle. "I guarantee you Francona wasn't looking for a way to match up Lester with Cook. Neither was I. It happened because it happened. I believe in a lot of different venues that God's fingerprints are all over."

(Lenny Megliola is a Daily News columnist. His e-mail is lennymegs@aol.com)

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